Advertisements for “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow, Scotland, promised an enchanted garden of giant candies, “optical marvels,” and a “paradise of sweet treats” — all for around $45 per ticket.
Unfortunately, AI-generated artwork depicting a colorful wonderland gave way to a sparsely decorated warehouse.
So, how bad was this thing?
One parent said his children received two jelly beans and a half-cup of lemonade.
Parents fumed.
Kids weeped.
The organizers laughed their way to the bank.
Because the event was not an officially licensed Willy Wonka experience, the nonsensical AI-penned script — which actors said they were given two days to memorize — included candymaker Willy McDuff and his Wonkidoodles (clearly Oompa Loompas, but okay).
The story involved an evil chocolate maker who lived in the walls and coveted an “Anti-Graffiti Gobstopper.”
The event organizer, House of Illuminati, has since promised refunds, blaming the disaster on a series of last-minute letdowns.
Ok, I don’t think it was a scam or deliberate fraud, but it was bad.
Now, it appears the industry’s capacity for nonsense has increased due to AI’s ability to generate bogus pictures, copy, and scripts at the drop of a purple tophat.
The event’s organizer, Billy Coull, has apparently self-published several novels on Amazon, also likely generated by AI, per Rolling Stone.
On the one hand, this is all very funny. But it’s not great for parents who paid to have their kids traumatized by a wall-dwelling chocolate thief, or legit event organizers who now have to deal with bozos like this.
How can we better protect ourselves from AI-driven scams in the future?
As AI technology continues to evolve, so too will the ways it can be misused.
With the advent of more realistic, powerful, and omnipotent AI technologies, scammers and tricksters have a lot more firepower now.
Have you seen what some generative AI tech can do now?
It should scare you.
Pretty soon we won’t be able to tell real from fake.
What can we do?
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Will AI generated scams be a huge problem in the future?
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